John Paul Jones

Clearly, it was a departure for the Kennedy Center Honors. Now in it’s 35th year, the ceremony started out by paying tribute to cultural icons like Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald and Tennessee Williams. In recent years, rock has been represented more and more at this prestigious event, with Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen all collecting the Kennedy Center medallion. But past ceremonies probably never got as loud as this year’s.

Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stone magazine have always had an uneasy relationship: although the band dominated the ’70s, they were only on the cover once during that decade. And Rolling Stone didn’t always give Zeppelin’s records favorable reviews. So, it was a surprise that the band’s leader Jimmy Page gave the magazine an eight-hour plus interview in the new issue, which features a vintage Page shot on the cover.

The Robert Plant/Jimmy Page/John Paul Jones “reunion” will last at least one more day: Plant, Page and Jones will be visiting fellow Kennedy Center honoree David Letterman less than 24 hours after The Kennedy Center Honors, as they appear on “Late Show With David Letterman” Monday night.

The show won’t be broadcasted live: an edited version will air on CBS on December 26. But CBS Local will be there, live tweeting the event from Radio.com. We’ll also have a wrap-up after the show is over Sunday night.

The members of the band dodged questions about their future but seemed to enjoy each other’s company, and took a lot of pride in their performance as captured in the film. Jimmy Page expressed relief that the show went as well as it did, saying the band was “uncomfortable” with their reunion performances at Live Aid (in 1985) and the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Concert (in 1988).

Two members of Led Zeppelin made surprise appearances — albeit separately — at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival over the weekend. On Saturday, Robert Plant joined folk singer Patty Griffin during her solo acoustic performance at the free festival. Meanwhile, John Paul Jones, who has spent more time supporting other artists than making his own records in recent years, made three guest appearances.

Given that Grohl is a huge Led Zeppelin fan, we figure that it’s a given that he’ll return to the stage to perform at the Kennedy Center Honors event in December where Zep will be honored, alongside Buddy Guy, David Letterman, Dustin Hoffman and ballerina Natalia Makarova.

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, the founding members of Led Zeppelin, were all on hand in London on Friday for a press conference marking the release of Celebration Day, a concert film documenting the band’s 2007 two-hour reunion show, their first headline concert in 27 years, at London’s O2 Arena.

Last week, the Kennedy Center announced that Led Zeppelin would be honored at their annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. This morning, the band confirmed, via a press release, that they will attend the prestigious event, which takes place in Washington, D.C. on December 3 (and which airs on CBS on December 26).